


rain don't blind the rising souls

by hi_hello_hey_there



Series: you don't have to say i love you (to say i love you) [9]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: (I can't stress this enough), Adventures in Tagging, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bittersweet Ending, Caleb Covington Being a Bastard, Caleb Covington is Evil, Flynn's Love Language is Offering to Drive, Gen, House Party, Julie Does Research, Nick is Not Himself, Nick's Parents are Chad Danforth and Ryan Evans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:16:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27585974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hi_hello_hey_there/pseuds/hi_hello_hey_there
Summary: “I don’t- Something’s wrong.” His eyes are scared when he looks up, imploring each of them to help. Alex looks back at her then, his own face ridden with worry.She steps back to usher them both in. “Come in. Let’s talk in private.”
Relationships: Alex & Flynn & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie & Willie, Caleb Covington & Nick
Series: you don't have to say i love you (to say i love you) [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942267
Comments: 30
Kudos: 208





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Don't worry about me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta read by: Cassie! Show her some love at [findingsofafangirl](https://findingsofafangirl.tumblr.com/) and [academia-and-politics](https://academia-and-politics.tumblr.com/).

Band practice is sacred to the boys. This is why Julie isn’t surprised when the three of them groan in unison after somebody knocks on the door. It makes her chuckle as she moves from behind the piano to open the doors. She wonders who it could be as she makes her way over, realizing that neither Flynn nor Carlos would knock as both of them have just barged in during rehearsals before. She tells her dad when they’re going to be practicing and he tries not to bother her until she comes back into the house.

All surprise is dashed out of her when she opens the door to see a strange boy with long hair standing there. “Can I help you?”

He meets her eye, seemingly shocked that she’s addressed him. “You must be Julie.” He fidgets a lot, looking left and right, picking at his sleeves or his bracelets, and sliding his skateboard on the pavement with one foot.

“I am,” she says warily and contemplates calling for her dad. Not that the boys wouldn’t help her, it’s just that they weren’t corporeal full time yet. “And you are?”

He shakes his head at himself, like he should have thought of that. “Sorry, I’m-”

“Willie?” Reggie appears behind her, looking, for a moment, ready to fight someone if need be. His face falls into something more restrained than his usual unabashed grin as he studies the boy in front of them. Luke quickly falls in on her other side, flanking her for protection. It’s flattering but seemingly unnecessary.

“Wait, what?” Julie hears Alex scramble to get out from behind his kit, the discordant crash of a cymbal echoing through the studio. Suddenly, he’s pushing past the small group and pulling Willie in for an embrace. She feels almost like she’s intruding on something private when they bury their faces in the crooks of each other’s necks and just breathe. Before she can turn away, though, Alex is pulling back, but not yet letting go of the other boy. “What happened?”

“I don’t- Something’s wrong.” His eyes are scared when he looks up, imploring each of them to help. Alex looks back at her then, his own face ridden with worry.

She steps back to usher them both in. “Come in. Let’s talk in private.”

She waits until their small party is inside before closing and locking the doors behind her. The boys have already settled on the couch and in surrounding chairs. Willie is sandwiched between Alex and Reggie, bent forward with his head between his knees like he’s about to be sick. _Can ghosts even get sick?_ she thinks and then adds _Not the time, brain._ “So, what can we help you with?” She places herself on the coffee table, directly in front of Willie.

He takes a deep breath and a hard, shaky sigh comes out. He looks her in the eye when he says, “I haven’t seen Caleb in weeks.”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Luke pipes up from the chair beside them.

At first, Willie just shakes his head. “No,” he finally says, his breath coming out in uneven wheezes. “I was talking with some of the older ghost patrons of the club and they said this has only happened once before. Back in the 50s, a few years after he really got famous for what he was doing, there was another group of ghosts Caleb wanted to join his troupe. Four sisters, they told me, who were very gifted trapeze artists and had just died of influenza. What was so special was that they could be seen by their brother who had survived getting sick.

“At that point, nobody knew of anyone other than Caleb who could make ghosts visible to lifers. It scared him, I think, because after they refused to join him, he went missing. Then one day, he just turned back up, suddenly cracking down on everyone about their loyalties and making them take his seal. They found out later that he had possessed one of the brother’s best friends and tried to manipulate the sisters into dancing for him. Nobody knows all the details, but those girls didn’t come back with him, so they all assumed that was why he was suddenly all about security.” A wave of dense, silence fills the room when he pauses. “Some of them think it’s happening again.”

With that final bomb dropped, Luke catapults out of his chair and begins pacing back and forth behind Julie. “What does that mean?” Reggie asks. His face lacks any of its usual playfulness and instead showcases pure, unbridled fear.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Willie confesses. “But that’s not all. Look at this.” He pulls up his right sleeve to show them the very familiar marking put on him by Caleb. It’s bigger than any the boys had and makes Julie feel queasy. “It’s fading and I don’t know why. I thought at first it had to do with the fact that I’d been away from Caleb for a while, but nobody else’s brand is going away like mine.”

Alex puts his hand out for Willie to grab hold of and he does so readily, his shoulders incrementally unfurling. “Are you okay?”

He lets out a single, fond huff, a small smile coming onto his face. “ **Don’t worry about me.** I’m fit as a fiddle, hotdog.”

Alex rolls his eyes and scoffs in such an Alex way, Julie can’t help but chuckle. Then a thought strikes her, the weight of it throwing her off guard. “I have an idea. It’s not a good one, but it might shed some light on what’s going on here.”

~ ~ ~

Searching for the obituary of a deceased friend’s deceased friend is not exactly how Julie pictured her evening going when she woke up this morning. Here she is, though, sitting at the desk in her room, laptop booting up, and ghost boys crowding around her to get a good view at what’s happening. She types in the Los Angeles Times online newspaper link and navigates to the obituaries tab. “Alright. What’s your full first and last name?”

“William McKay.” Willie’s breathing is doing that funny wheezing thing again. “My parents are Samoset and Jindallae McKay if that helps.”

“Dude, you don’t have to look if you don’t want to,” Reggie offers. “I’ll sit with you on the bed if you would rather.”

“No, it’s okay,” Willie replies while the computer works. “I need to see.”

The first search comes up fruitless as does every search in every major newspaper in Los Angeles. Julie expands her search to the surrounding cities, going as far north as Modesto and as far east as Phoenix, Arizona. She even checks the Korean newspaper Willie suggests because his mother used to read it. “There’s nothing,” she reports, after nearly an hour of searching. “It’s like nobody reported on your death.” She winces as the words come out of her mouth and turns to face Willie who had eventually taken up Reggie’s offer. “Sorry. That was insensitive.”

“You’re fine.” He says it absently, confusion written all over his face. “I just don’t understand.”

Luke snaps his fingers, drawing her attention back to the chair he had pulled up beside her, and asks, “Did you try just searching for his name?” He and the boys had been spending some time with Carlos while he taught them the basics of the modern internet and it seemed to be paying off.

Julie pats his cheek gently. “You’re a genius.”

She sets to work typing in Willie’s full name in while Alex calls out, “Don’t tell him that. His head already barely fits through the door.” There’s the dull thud of a pillow hitting the ground and Alex’s indignant “Hey!”

The comment barely registers as she watches the loading wheel spin. The WiFi gods must not be on her side tonight as she desperately tries to make it go faster. “Ugh, really?” she bemoans aloud. She’s about ready to venture to her dad’s office to check the router when the browser page finally loads. “Oh my god.”

“What? What is it?” Willie pops up beside her to read over her shoulder.

She clicks on the first link, an article from 2016 detailing a horrific car accident. In the accident, both drivers had died, four pedestrians had been severely injured, and three had minor injuries. Eventually, someone called the ambulance and they showed up to help but the damage had been done. The chill in the room intensifies as they all read on from behind Julie. She scans to the bottom where they list what happened to the people who were injured and reads aloud. “Michael Waters, Georgette Henderson, and Evan Duncan were treated for minor wounds and shock on the scene. The Underwood family, Ricardo, Olivia, and daughter Ella, were taken to UCLA Medical Center and have undergone successful surgery. They are now in recovery. William McKay was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and has gone into a coma. No further information has been given at this time.”

Willie falls back, landing squarely on the bed in his haste, his chest heaving breaths that get shorter and shorter. “A- a coma? I’m not dead? I-” He suddenly starts to tip forward. Luckily Alex had moved back with him or he’d have hit the floor. Julie didn’t even know things like that could happen to ghosts, but then again Willie was still alive.

“Woah, hey, breathe,” Alex soothes. “I got you.”

The gears seem to be turning double time in Reggie’s head, piecing together information and trying to come to a conclusion in the muddled mess of everything. “Wait. So if Willie is still alive and Caleb’s gone missing-”

“Then something really fishy is going on here and that bastard Caleb is at the center of it.” Luke stands from his chair and crosses behind Julie to get to Alex and Willie, crouching down in front of them and, after whispering something that Willie nods at, placing a firm hand on his knee and squeezing. Julie recognizes the grounding technique she’d learned from Flynn.

Speaking of, just as the dust starts to clear, Julie’s phone rings, Flynn’s contact picture lighting up the screen. “Now’s not a really good time-” she begins but Flynn interrupts her immediately.

“I just saw Nick and he was acting… not like himself. It was scary.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Flynn replies. “But I’m coming over. We need to talk about this. It freaked me out.”

Julie peers around the room, four sets of questioning eyes meet hers. “Okay. We have some stuff to fill you in on as well.”

“I’ll be there in ten.” The line goes dead and Julie really hopes that with their combined knowledge, something that makes sense will come out of this.

~ ~ ~

“I was at the movies with my cousin when I saw him,” Flynn begins. She’s seated on the bed, Reggie and Julie beside her. Willie has taken up residence in Julie’s office chair, holding a pillow so Flynn has a general idea of where to look since he isn’t visible to her. Alex is seated on the floor in front of Willie, Luke standing beside them, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed as he listens. They had all teamed up to tell Flynn Willie’s story and were now eager to hear hers. “We were just talking on the way out of the theater when he bumped into me so hard I fell over. And Nick didn’t apologize which is so unlike him. He just said, “Whoops.” It didn’t even sound like him.”

“What else happened?” Julie asks, placing her hand on her best friend’s arm. “You look a lot more shaken up than an accidental bump.”

Flynn nods silently, seemingly trying to find a way to word it. Reggie silently offers his hand out to her and she grabs on for dear life. Julie shoots him a grateful smile behind her back in silent thanks for his support. “Once he realized it was me he bumped into, he kinda just stared at me before he helped me up. Apparently, he’s having a big birthday party tomorrow and wants to make sure you’ll be there.” She looks up at Julie as she says this.

“Me?” Julie’s confusion only builds and she’s almost tapped out for the night. “Why me?”

“I know you let him down easy, but I think he may still have something for you. That’s beside the point, though. He was not acting or speaking like himself. The goofy, clumsy, kind guy that you had a-” Julie elbows her sharply, eyes threatening her to not finish that sentence in their current company. “-that you were dance partners with was nowhere to be found tonight and it really irked me. It’s like his personality did a complete one-eighty.” She sounds out of breath by the time her story is over, but there’s something else: “And I swear when he walked away, his eyes looked purple, but that must have been a trick of the light.”

“Wait,” Alex interrupts, an inquisitive look coming over his face. “What does Nick look like?” Flynn taps around for a minute on her phone, navigating through Instagram to Nick’s profile. She clicks on one of the photos and flips her screen to show Alex. “Oh, god, I’ve seen him before. He was at the gig at your house. I’m pretty sure that twerp was looking _at_ me when I saw the purple thing with his eyes, too.”

“Not to state the obvious,” Reggie says after a beat of silence, “but who do we know whose signature color is purple and is a dick?”

A thick tenseness descends on the room, slowly sucking the air away from Julie’s lungs and clouding her mind. Could it be true? Could Caleb be behind all of this? Her chest burns at the possibility, but also with the fiercest anger she’s ever felt in her life. How dare he ruin the lives of people she’s friends with, people she loves? He has another thing coming if he thinks she’ll let this slide.

“What do we do?” Willie asks, sounding very small and folding in on himself.

“One thing’s for sure,” Julie replies with grim determination and everyone looks to her with every emotion from fear to fury written on their faces. “We have to go to that party. We have to try to do something.”

~ ~ ~

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Flynn whispers at her, pulling on the neckline of her dress. The party rages on up ahead of them, having paused at the front gate to collect themselves. She seems more nervous than her usual confident, take-no-crap self so Julie takes her by the hand and squeezes.

“We’re just here to gather intel and leave.” She checks her watch and notes the time. “We meet back on the front porch in one hour. Eleven-thirty sharp. I don’t want to have to come looking for your ass, you hear me?”

Flynn gives a squeeze back at her playful tone. “Ditto.” Then she looks up at the house, steeling herself for the worst. “Let’s get this over with.” Together, they push open the wrought iron gate to walk up the main drive. Not for the first time tonight, Julie wishes the guys are here with them. They had decided that if Caleb was, in fact, holding Nick’s body prisoner, it would be safer for everybody involved if they stayed behind and she had made them promise they would stay in the studio until she and Flynn got back. She had gone so far as to have Alex find Willie and bring him back to keep them honest. They all put up a hell of a fight about it, though, Luke especially, but Julie would not risk another person for some simple information. Still, it would be nice to have some additional back up.

They finally reach the front door, opening as a couple who can’t detach their faces from each other stumble out. The girls scoot by them into the house and scan the ginormous foyer for the man of the hour. “One hour,” she reminds her best friend.

Flynn nods. “One hour.” And then she walks away, leaving Julie to collect herself and think of how to begin.

She pushes onward, through a throng of people dancing to a poppy song she doesn’t recognize. Off to her left, a stage is set up and Carrie’s band is performing. “Figures,” Julie mumbles to herself, eyes rolling involuntarily. The blues and yellows and pinks of the stage lights bounce off their sparkled skirts and directly into her eyes so she keeps going. From the outside, she couldn’t really tell just how big this house actually is; by the time she’s made it to the back of the house, she can’t even see the front anymore. She makes her way to the kitchen, pouring herself a solo cup of ginger ale so she stands out less and her hands will stop clenching and unclenching at her sides. Her eyes take a quick inventory of the people there, plenty of whom are classmates that she recognizes instantly, but some are people she’s never seen before wearing a few dated outfits and if she looks closely enough, they don’t even seem to be high school age at all.

Her thirty-minute people watching stint is interrupted by a voice calling out from her right, “Julie!”

Nick approaches her then, a tailored indigo suit jacket and slacks and deep, black dress shirt standing out starkly from his pale skin. His smile is familiar and unfamiliar all at once. She allows herself to be lured in but is aware and wary of the razor sharp teeth hidden in his grin. “Nick! Happy birthday!”

He pulls her in for a hug, a deep chill radiating off of him that sets off about a thousand alarms in her brain simultaneously. She actively tries not to stiffen, but feels herself do so anyway. She knows Nick notices by the way he suddenly lets go of her. A strange sneer twists up his face for a split second when he thinks she can’t see him before it melts back into a grin. “So glad you could make it. Maybe at my next shindig, you and your band could play. One can only take so much of this… whatever it is.” He gestures vaguely towards where Dirty Candy is launching into another of their songs, disgust plain in his every movement.

Julie laughs off her unease and tries to think of a suitable answer to the completely out of character statement. “Yeah, well, the boys and I have been on a little hiatus from performing. Writing new music and such,” is what she comes up with.

Nick glances at her up and down, a hum of acknowledgement and thinly veiled detestation is her response. She feels like she’s been caught in a lie, her reactions being studied with a keen eye that knows much more than Nick should know. “Well, I’ll see you around, then. I’ve got my list of people to see, things to do. You know.” He’s joking now or at least attempting to. Julie gives a halfhearted chuckle to ward off suspicion. He delicately grabs her hand, laying a kiss on the knuckles, and she cannot hide her shock when he says, “ _Au revoir_ , Julietta.” He saunters away, greeting everyone as he goes with enthusiasm.

Nobody ever used her full name. Only _tía_ Victoria or sometimes her dad when they were upset with her, but only Flynn and the teachers even knew that Julie wasn’t her actual name. The rational side of her tells her she’s being stupid for reacting this way. The lights bathe her in swathes of different colors as she struggles to rein in her breaths. _There’s a totally plausible way that he knows my name_ , she tells herself. _He could’ve seen it on a teacher’s class roster or in the school’s student directory or something._

She walks around, hoping that if she moves and only pauses every so often, she won’t look as out of place as she feels while she silently makes her way to the door, hoping Flynn is outside and ready to go. She knows only one thing for certain: whoever she just talked to wasn’t Nick.

So, if Nick isn’t in control, who is?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeesh.  
> This one's gonna be a doozy, lads. I'm just absolutely going out on a limb with where this is headed so be forewarned. On the (metaphorical) bright side, it's been really blustery here the past few days and my writer brain is absolutely at peace. Prompts are still open from [this list](https://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you) save for 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 49, 50, 53, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 82, 83, 86, 91, 92, 98, and 99. You can drop me a comment here or send a message to tumblr. Either way, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for reading, sweet things. I love you!
> 
> main: [hi-hello-hey-there](https://hi-hello-hey-there.tumblr.com/)  
> side: [toziers-token](https://toziers-token.tumblr.com/)
> 
> love, blue


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Be careful."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta read by: Cassie! Love you! Check her out at [findingsofafangirl](https://findingsofafangirl.tumblr.com/) and [academia-and-politics](https://academia-and-politics.tumblr.com/).

It’s not often that Luke feels like he can’t do something, but when he can’t, restlessness gets the better of him. Usually, he’d go to his guitar or steal Alex’s drumsticks and play until his fingers bled or went numb. However, in his current… predicament, neither of those things are an option, and he can’t stand waiting around for the girls to come back, so he walks and no one tries to stop him as he goes. He walks and walks until he’s lost all sense of direction, the rhythmic pounding of his feet of the ground close enough to the beat of a song.

He finds himself walking faster than he’d ever walked in life and, since he doesn’t get tired as easily, farther than he would’ve dared go without a car. He’s in the middle of a suburban neighborhood when he finally pushes through the haze is his brain and switches off autopilot, realizing he hasn’t the foggiest idea exactly where he is. It brings him back to a night in early 1995 when Reggie had been in his shoes. The thought of his best friend must inform his next teleportation, because he materializes in front of the bike shop that used to be his house.

Luke turns and faces the water, a sudden overpowering urge to stand in the tide overtaking him. He doesn’t know if he’ll feel anything, but he makes his way to the shoreline and toes off his sneakers, leaving them in a heap a few feet away. There’s a distant worry that someone might try to take them now that he’s not wearing them as he rolls up his pant legs, but he can’t be too bothered by the thought and leaves them where they are. When he steps into the tide, he’s disappointed for a moment, the familiar feeling of the ocean lapping over his feet nowhere to be found. He concentrates on that sensation, pulling it from the recesses of his memory and then - there! He feels the water, cool and relaxing, move through him. It’s not the same, but it’s as close as he’s going to get right now. He plops down in the sand with his feet just at the water’s edge.

Tonight, the moon is a shred of itself, crescent shape illuminating the few people still out and about on the beach. It’s an achingly familiar scene he’s placed himself in: running away from his problems and taking himself to a place of comfort. He tries to shake the self-deprecating thought from his head, but another fills its place. He should be with his boys, helping Alex keep Willie from spiraling or making sure Reggie doesn’t feel abandoned. But he can’t be there when he knows Julie and Flynn are out, likely risking their wellbeings for their sake. It’s too much of a weight on his conscience.

So he sits and does what his parents and teachers tried to get him to do a thousand times over: he keeps himself out of trouble. He watches seagulls circle a few yards out before diving down and plucking a fish from the sea and flying away. He notices a young couple with their heads bent together, giggling like little kids devising a practical joke. An ice cream shop that Luke and the boys had frequented in life is shutting down for the night, the digital clock in the window reading a quarter past eleven. The girls will be back soon if all goes well.

He plucks himself out of the sand, grabbing his shoes with one hand, and slowly meanders along the shore. As he watches the patrons left on the beach and those passing by in the opposite direction on the boardwalk, an almost painful yearning to be human again takes over him. His friends’ lives wouldn’t be on the line if he hadn’t died. Logically, he knows he could never have possibly had any say over the unfolding events, of course. It doesn’t stop the immense feeling of guilt from washing over him, though.

He heaves a sigh and pulls his shoes back on, dusting sand from the seat of his pants and poofing back to the studio. When he arrives on the middle cushion of the couch, nobody asks where he was, but Reggie flings himself into the corner of the sofa and swings his legs over Luke’s lap. His hands come to a rest on Reggie’s shins and Alex shoots him a tight smile from where he and Willie are slumped in a pile of ghost against the far wall. Luke doesn’t like feeling useless, but he tries waiting patiently like the rest of them.

They’ve all been nearly silent, Luke feeling very much like a phantom haunting the darkened studio, when Flynn’s car finally pulls into the driveway. It takes everything in him not to push Reggie off of him and meet them outside, but he knows they’ll be coming directly in here.

Julie enters first, dread radiating off of her and pulling her shoulders forward. She doesn’t even stop to turn the lights on before filling the final seat on the couch, tucking her legs under her, laying her head on Luke’s shoulder, and threading her arm through his. Her hand rests on Reggie’s ankle and she lets a shaky breath loose. Flynn nearly collapses into the chair next to them and he can tell she’s afraid. Alex joins them wordlessly, sitting on the arm of the couch and reaching for Julie’s free hand, Reggie offering the same to Flynn. Willie awkwardly stands just behind the big blob they’ve become before Julie beckons him over with her head. He sits on the coffee table in front of her, mirroring her position from a few days ago.

“So,” Alex breaks the silence first. “What happened?”

“Flynn was right,” Julie begins, her voice strangely stiff. “Nick isn’t himself. I don’t even think he’s at the wheel of his own life right now.”

“And you think it’s Caleb?” Reggie directs his question at Willie.

He nods but Flynn says, “Hell, I don’t even know the guy and I think it’s him.”

It’s silent for a moment and Luke’s brain is working overtime trying to think of something to do or say, but he falls flat. Willie pipes up eventually with, “What do we do now?”

And he finally comes up with something, “Research.” All eyes fall on him, then, and he straightens, Julie’s head rising to look at him. “Julie and Flynn can cover books and the Internet to see if there’s anything useful. Willie, you and someone should talk to some more folks at the Hollywood Ghost Club and see if they know anything. The last two should keep an eye on Nick, keep track of where he goes or anything suspicious he does.” There’s a look of mild shock on everyone’s faces. “What?”

Alex lets out a pleasantly surprised chuckle. “Nothing, dude. It’s a good plan.” A content and proud feeling settles in Luke’s chest and together, the six of them start to work out the details. He feels a little less useless after that.

~ ~ ~

“I didn’t think I’d get put on babysitting duty,” Luke whines, crossing his arms in front of him. Currently, he and Reggie are perched on a tree branch outside of Nick’s house, waiting for him to come home from lacrosse practice like they have every day this week. While everyone else got to do the cool, interesting stuff, he was stuck in a tree. What has his afterlife come to?

“I can hear you pouting,” Reggie sighs exasperatedly, not even looking at him and instead studying his nails. “Hey, do you think Julie has any black nail polish? I haven’t done that in a while.”

“Okay, first of all I don’t pout.” Reggie looks at him then, pointedly raising his eyebrows and gesturing vaguely at his face. Luke realizes then that he had, indeed, been frowning and tries to pull the corners of his mouth into a more neutral expression. Reggie just rolls his eyes, going back to picking at his nails and ignoring him. “And second of all, we’re supposed to be paying attention to what’s going on here.”

Now it’s Reggie’s turn to sound irritated. “There’s nothing to see yet. The most exciting thing that’s happened here so far is that one of Nick’s dads got scared by their cat while he was cutting carrots for dinner.” Of course, he’s right and Luke goes back to staring at the house, looking for anything they might have missed.

The sun is already starting to set by the time a dark gray minivan pulls into the driveway and Luke reaches over blindly to smack Reggie and get his attention. A tall, handsome man with dark skin and long, coiled hair pulled into a ponytail steps out, taking a moment to stretch. For a second, Luke doesn’t recognize him, but then he vaguely remembers the blond one telling their daughter that “Poppa will be back from his business trip soon.” He moves to the backseat to help the little girl out, chatting amicably with her, but once she’s on the ground, she runs to the house. “Be careful, Becca!” the man calls out, shaking his head fondly at her. “C’mon, Nick. Dad’s probably making dinner.”

The boy in question slowly unfolds himself from the passenger seat, movements lithe and graceful, before the man claps a hand on his shoulder and they follow the little girl inside. From what the girls had told them, he’s something of a klutz despite being an athlete. He apparently has the tendency to trip on his own two feet just walking down the hallway at school. That person is nowhere to be found as the boys watch him waltz around the kitchen, avoiding bumping into people and counters as he helps to set the table, something he’s been doing consistently every evening. He moves like a dancer and if Luke didn’t know any better, he’d say Nick is one. There’s a moment, however, where Nick stumbles, having bumped into little Becca as she rounds the island and nearly knocks him off balance. There’s a strained look in his eyes as Luke shares a look with Reggie that tells him they’re having the same thought:  _ that’s odd _ .

Nothing particularly exciting happens during dinner as usual. No one seems to notice the tightness around the corners of Nick’s smile or the way his laughter sounds forced. They don’t notice the near disgust in his eyes as he helps the blond man wash dishes and pack away leftovers. It’s startling, even from Luke’s limited point of view, how easily Caleb is willing to disrupt someone’s entire life for his own selfish gain.

“Got homework tonight, bud?” the dark haired man asks.

Nick - Caleb - breathes in a slow, frustrated breath before pasting a smile on his face and turning to answer, “Yeah, pops. Got a big test tomorrow to study for, so I’ll probably be in my room the rest of the night.”

“Okay,” his dad responds. He looks like he might say something else, but Nick is already disappearing up the stairs, mumbling to himself. The blond man gives a suspicious look and appears to be ready to go after him, but his husband stops him. “Leave it, Ryan. He’s just having a stressful day.”

Ryan is still watching the stairs until he rubs a hand over his face, looking tired. “I don’t know, Chad. Something’s been off this entire week.”

Reggie is tugging on his wrist after that but Luke is just glad that the poor kid’s parents noticed that something  _ has  _ been off. They poof to another tree on the other side of the house where a light pops on. Thankfully, and it honestly weirds Luke out so much that he thinks this, the blinds are open so they can spy from a distance. He tries to make himself come to terms with the fact that he’s here to try and help Nick but also not get himself evaporated.

Nick locks the door behind him and makes his way to the attached bathroom. Luke and Reggie scoot further down the branch they’re on to try and see what’s happening. It looks bad, Nick fully bent over the sink, knuckles pure white in the death grip he has on the counter. His whole body moves as he breathes, looking on the verge of passing out. It’s when he looks back up at the mirror, however, that scares the living daylights out of Luke.

The reflection looking back at Nick is not his own. Caleb Covington, not a hair out of place, stares back at him, a repulsed sneer contorting his face. “This is so much worse than The Little Mermaid,” Reggie whispers harshly at him. Luke just shushes him so they can hear what’s happening.

“Nicholas, Nicholas, Nicholas,” he tuts, waggling his finger. Caleb’s voice sounds like it’s miles away, warped like hearing the other end of someone’s phone conversation. “You know what resisting me will get you.”

“I don’t know what you have planned,” Nick grits out through ground teeth, “but you won’t hurt me or my family or my friends to do it.”

Caleb laughs, no other word but evil to describe it. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, kid. Make one wrong move and your whole life, your plans for the future, everything and everyone you hold dear, will face my wrath.” He waves his hand and his signature purple seal lights up on the sides of Nick’s neck, connected by a ring of purple. It racks him with spasms, purple electricity thrumming through his body. When it’s over, he slumps practically into the sink basin and lets out a pitiful whimper. “So, keep that in mind, eh?”

“I hate you,” Nick murmurs. Luke has to admire his tenacity.

“Oh, I know.” Caleb huffs out a single annoyed breath. “Now, I have too much riding on this weekend so let’s talk about what exactly you’re not to do come Sunday.”

~ ~ ~

Julie and Flynn are in the studio when Luke and Reggie pop back in. They don’t even look up from the stacks of books and papers, a familiar scene for each night this week. “Nothing new, I assume?” Julie questions, copying down a sentence into her own notebook. When neither Luke nor Reggie can find the words to say, she looks at them, registering the concern on their faces, and caps her pen. She crosses the room to them and takes one of each of their hands in hers. “What happened?”

That catches Flynn’s attention and then she’s appearing at Julie’s side. “Are you guys okay? Is Nick okay?”

“No,” Reggie says, trembling. “He’s very much  _ not  _ okay.” The girls lead them to their table, clearing a spot of papers and moving Flynn’s laptop out of the way.

Alex and Willie pop back in then, grim looks on their faces disappearing when they see the state of their friends. Luke still can’t talk, struggling to vocalize through his fear. Once everyone is seated, Julie implores, “Tell us what’s going on.”

Luke clears his throat and forces the words building up to come out. “We saw Caleb.” He and Reggie take turns describing the horrifying scene they witnessed. Luke watches as his friends’ faces fill with muted terror and he knows that whatever comes of this isn’t going to be good.

“And it’s worse than we thought,” Reggie finishes. “Caleb’s big plan is going down this Sunday.”

“Sunday?” everyone choruses. Luke might have laughed if the circumstances were different.

“Did he say anything about the specifics?” Flynn asks, her eyebrows drawn together in puzzlement.

Luke shakes his head. “He didn’t say much. All we know is that on Sunday, he’s opening the Hollywood Ghost Club to the general public for one night. He gave Nick a list of things he wasn’t allowed to do or say up to and through whatever’s happening.”

Alex starts pacing then and the action is so incredibly Alex that it relaxes Luke enough for him to slow his breathing back to normal. “So,” he starts, “this is a lot worse than we thought.”

“The ghosts at the club are scared,” Willie remarks. “And they’ve been fending off disgruntled lifers since last weekend. Without Caleb, everyone’s been on edge and there’s even been some talk of them trying to remove their sigils.”

“What have you two figured out?” Reggie asks the girls, gesturing at the table of notes.

“Well,” Julie moves to grab her notebook and flips to the beginning. “At first there wasn’t much. We looked into Caleb’s life and death, what those markings could mean, and a whole bunch of other stuff that the librarian gave us weird looks for.”

Flynn turns her laptop towards the boys, clicking to her notes. “Online, there’s a bunch of articles talking about how sad it was that Caleb Covington, the next rising star in magic-” her voice takes on an sarcastic tone at those words “-had passed, how bright his future would have been, but past that, there was a lot of weird stuff. Discussion boards and blog posts dissecting some of his more impressive feats, saying how some of the things he pulled off shouldn’t have been possible. It’s pretty coincidental when you think about it.”

“And that’s when I found this,” Julie continues, turning to the next page in her notebook and showing off a detailed drawing of Caleb’s sigil, copied directly from Willie’s arm, and a very similar marking beside it. “It’s a very ancient, very dark kind of magic that very few people knew about much less practiced according to the book I found. This sigil is supposed to bind someone to the person who placed it there and give them access to the person’s life force, but who’s to say that’s where he stopped? A lot of those online bloggers think he used real magic to do some of his tricks.”

“Essentially, these brandings are supernatural jumper cables,” Flynn explains. “We think he may be using them to keep people in line, obviously, but also to take a little bit of everyone’s life force when they don’t suspect it. Maybe for him, maybe for someone - or something - else. You said that the patrons at the club were talking about rebelling?” She looks in Willie’s general direction, unable to see him but focusing on listening to him.

“Yeah. It’s like there was a fire in them I’ve never seen before,” he responds.

Luke looks back at Flynn as she elaborates. “Exactly. That plus your own stamp fading is probably because he hasn’t been around. He’s using Nick as his primary energy source so everyone else is going through the best form of withdrawal there ever was.”

“So what can we do to stop it?” Luke finally asks. “All this information is great, but we need a plan. What happens to Nick?”

Julie shugs, face suddenly falling. “There’s no concrete answer to that anywhere I’ve looked. From what I read, my best guess is that either Caleb removes the stamps himself or they’re disfigured.”

“And by disfigured, you mean-” Alex makes a hand movement like he’s slicing something.

“Cut, burn, whatever. They need to be disrupted somehow, better if they were destroyed entirely.” Julie’s face contorts to discomfort at the thought so Luke stands, moving himself to Julie’s side and placing an arm around her shoulders. She sends a grateful look his way and breathes a little easier.

“Wait,” Alex resumes his pacing until he snaps and points at Julie. “You got rid of our markings because you love us. What if we do that? Start a- a love chain that helps everyone get rid of their stamps. People love each other around there right?”

“Yeah,” Willie says, catching on quickly. “There are a ton of family members, some couples, but a lot of friends. Love might work, but it would have to start with someone whose marks are gone.”

“We can work with that. As for Nick, he has to fight his way out of this one. Destroying his markings would help, but Caleb’s possessed him with the help of magic. An exorcism or banishing spell wouldn’t work, especially against someone of his power, if what I read is to be trusted. Love might help but I don’t know,” Flynn reports, body sagging with worry.

Reggie lets out a string of quiet curse words and the room falls silent. Everyone is thinking, trying to come up with a way to stop this before even more people get hurt. Luke’s first option is to surrender themselves. The boys are what Caleb wants, but he’d be more than willing to give himself over than let anybody else take a bullet on his behalf. But then he looks at Julie, her eyes scrunched shut in concentration, and at Flynn, fingers pressed to her temples, and at Willie and Alex and Reggie and he knows none of them would let him.

And then something strikes him, something insane and completely stupid, but it might be all they’ve got. “I have an idea,” he announces. “A bad idea, probably dangerous.” All eyes are on him now.

“Go for it,” Flynn says.

He takes a deep breath and prepares himself. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.”

~ ~ ~

The club is absolutely packed. Despite the short notice, the sidewalk is lined with people waiting to get in all the way around the block. Julie and Flynn had gone ahead to make sure they got a spot that would guarantee them entrance. Reggie was with them so he could come back and get the others once they made it inside. It had been a few hours before he popped back into the studio, wordlessly beckoning Luke, Alex, and Willie to come with him.

He notices the inside hasn’t changed a bit when Luke arrives. They all follow Reggie to where he’d left the girls by the far wall. The air around them all is tense and when they join up with Julie and Flynn, somehow everything feels different, like a sense of finality has rested on each of their shoulders. Luke knows that regardless of how tonight goes down, it will all be over. Whether it’s in their favor or not depends entirely on them.

“Everyone ready?” he asks. “Got your assignments?” The group is silent, looking to anyone who can see them all like the least enthusiastic partygoers ever. Willie is the first to join him, then Alex and Reggie, Flynn and finally Julie. They crowd around one another, silently drawing strength from each other’s presences. “We got this. We just have to be quick.”

Nobody says anything for a moment until Reggie sniffs. **“Be careful.”** His voice is stiff, sounding like he’s holding back tears. “I can’t lose any of you.” It’s those words that bring everyone in, holding onto each other for one more moment before they have to part ways and do their own tasks. Luke hugs extra hard, making sure everyone knows he believes in them. After a while, they separate, sending encouraging smiles to one another in hopes to calm each other’s nerves.

“Alright?” Luke asks and they all nod their assent. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is... a lot. Very much out there, I would say. Credits to [dirtycandyy](https://dirtycandyy.tumblr.com/) and [carriesjulie](https://carriesjulie.tumblr.com/) for the Danforth-Evans headcanons (you'll be seeing them pop up here and there, but having Chad and Ryan as Nick's parents was just too good to pass up) so say thank you to Reagan and Faith for those. As always, prompts from [this list](https://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you) are open except for 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 26, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 48, 49, 50, 53, 57, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 82, 83, 86, 91, 98, and 99. You can drop a comment down below or message me on tumblr with requests. Note that for the past few weeks, prompt 92 has been off the market but when I was re-re-reworking my posting schedule, I moved some things around and now 92 is available again. I'm coming up on finals week and I'm about this close to just chucking my laptop into the nearest lake, but I love writing these for you guys and the comments and kudos make my heart so warm, so thank you. I love you beautiful, beautiful people. Enjoy!
> 
> main: [hi-hello-hey-there](https://hi-hello-hey-there.tumblr.com/)  
> side: [toziers-token](https://toziers-token.tumblr.com/)
> 
> love, blue


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'll drive you to the hospital."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta read by: Cassie! Love you, lady! Send her some love at [findingsofafangirl](https://findingsofafangirl.tumblr.com/) and [academia-and-politics](https://academia-and-politics.tumblr.com/).

They have to be quick.

Alex is running along a backstage hallway behind Willie trying to avoid being seen by Caleb’s inner circle of ghost cronies. There’s one stationed at every stage entrance and even though the both of them are wearing dark, unnoticeable clothes, it doesn’t stop the anxiety coursing through Alex’s veins every time they get a little too close to one. They dodge people and props, keeping their heads down and trying to look inconspicuous while also not falling behind schedule.

Willie crouches down behind a crate in the left wing, Alex following suit. His eyes are scanning an open space of performers doing last minute practices and stretches, taking inventory of everybody there. “We should start with Nellie. She’s got her whole family here and they’d take out a significant chunk of ghosts.”

“Her whole family?” Alex asks, incredulity filling his voice.

“Yeah. They all died in a plane crash not too long after Caleb. It’s a shame they got caught up in this.” Willie stands then and Alex hops up after him. That’s when he notices one of Caleb’s henchmen making a beeline for them. There’s no time for a second thought and Alex acts quickly on instinct; they need to hide in plain sight. He backs himself up against the wall, simultaneously grabbing at the front of Willie’s shirt and pulling him flush against his body. Willie’s hand lands on the wall beside his head, their faces centimeters apart. The man passes them, but neither of them move for fear of being caught.

Alex must be imagining how Willie’s eyes drift to his lips for a split second. He drags his eyes away from Willie’s face to search for any more imminent trouble and, seeing none, he whispers, “I think we’re clear.”

Willie takes a moment before he leans away from Alex, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles on his clothes. He clears his throat and says, “Quick thinking.” Alex doesn’t trust himself to speak so he just nods. “Okay, let’s find Nellie.”

And they’re back to sneaking. They pick their way past the performers who are ready to go and head back towards the dressing rooms. There, Willie leads them down a narrow hallway, stopping when he notices a little boy, and moving to ruffle his hair and straighten his tie. He must be no older than ten. The sight is just a little too adorable to behold and the implications a little more than heartbreaking, but it does a fantastic job of taking Alex’s mind away from the present where it really needs to be. “Hey, Louis. Where’s your mom?” he asks. Oh, this must be Nellie’s son.

“She’s this way. Come on!” Louis grabs Willie’s hand who in turn grabs Alex’s so they all stay together as they weave through people doing makeup and buttoning shirts, wayward dress racks and vanity stools. They stop in front of a door with a gold star on it, Louis letting go to push through it, but Willie’s and Alex’s fingers stay securely tightened as they step through after him. “ _Maman_? Willie is here.”

A woman who couldn’t be much older than thirty steps around a screen, her gem encrusted dress glittering as she moves. “Oh thank god,” she remarks, sounding relieved. She approaches them and places a motherly hand on Willie’s cheek. “We’re all so worried. None of us have seen Caleb at all today or that boy he’s been possessing. I’m afraid, _mon chou_ , that something very bad is happening. Something that none of us could have predicted.”

“That’s why we’re here, actually,” Alex states. Nellie eyes him, then, a tiny smile coming over her face

“You must be Alex,” she says. “Willie talks about you all the time.”

Her words cause a misfire somewhere in the recesses of Alex’s brain and he fumbles for a moment with what to say. Then he remembers that the people here and his friends are counting on them. “Yes, I am. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.” She pats his arm at that. “Anyway, we think we know what to do. Has your seal been fading?”

She raises her arm to show them but nothing is there and she rubs her hand over the skin in disbelief. “It was gone when I woke up this morning. I had been trying myself to get rid of it. I just kept thinking “go away, go away” and suddenly, it’s not there anymore.” There’s fear in her eyes when she looks back up at them. “I haven’t told anyone else.”

“That’s perfect.” Alex begins their explanation: “We had one of those, too, me and my bandmates. But our friend, Julie, she can see ghosts. She loves us so much that she got rid of ours somehow and that’s what we think you can do. You can use your love to start a chain reaction that gets rid of everyone’s stamps.”

“I think we can do that.” Nellie looks to a clothes rack and Alex notices two little faces, maybe about six years old. “Odette, Marcel, _viens ici_.” They shyly come forward and Alex rationalizes that they must be scared of him.

He crouches down to their level and puts on his friendliest smile. “Hey, kiddos. We’re here to help you.” Odette looks to Willie, who nods at her, before grabbing her brother’s hand and rushing towards their mother.

“ _Très bien_ ,” she encourages. “Louis, go find your sister and bring her back.” He pops out of the room, returning less than a minute later with a twelve year old girl who looks the spitting image of Nellie. “Yvonne, join in.” They’re all piling together, a big group hug and Alex hears her whisper, “ _Je vous aime. Je t’adore, mes amours._ ” Her children all chorus it back to her, their arms tightening around one another.

Suddenly, Marcel gasps and backs away from the group. He’s holding his arm out and Alex’s blood boils to see a stamp there. However, it’s glowing and rising up from his skin, like his did, and it dissipates into the air. Then the other children’s follow, one by one until Willie is the only one left with a stamp. “ _Magnifique_ ,” Yvonne breathes out.

“Okay, now here’s what you do,” Willie instructs. “Find your friends, all the people you love, and do the same. Then they go out and find all the people they love until everyone here is safe. Just be fast and don’t get caught.”

The kids all poof out, hopefully to really set this plan in motion. Alex looks to Nellie who has tears on her face. “Thank you,” she gasps out. “Thank you for bringing us hope.” Then she’s gone, too, leaving the boys behind.

“Great,” Alex says, matching Willie’s determined look with his own. “Let’s find the others.”

~ ~ ~

Julie and Reggie are following closely behind Jax, a friend of Willie’s, as he leads them down a wide corridor towards the club’s main electrical room. It’s their job to delay the start of the show, giving everyone inside enough time to get out safely and unharmed. “This way,” Jax whispers, beckoning them with a wide sweep of his arm. “It’s just down here.” Reggie had been a little shocked to find out that not all of the special effects are the working of Caleb’s ghostly magic, but he gets rid of all thoughts besides the ones that are important right now.

They stop in front of a door, Jax taking a moment to look farther down the hall and then back from where they came before unlocking it and ushering them inside. Reggie pushes Julie forward gently and pulls the door shut behind him. Jax waits a moment and then phases through just in case anyone’s watching. He gestures widely at the room once he’s inside. “Everything in here is automated. Once it’s been calibrated for the night, nobody touches it until the next performance.”

“Nobody touches it until us,” Reggie can’t help but joke, trying to lighten the mood. It makes him feel better when Julie chuckles at his lackluster attempt even if it is a pity laugh.

Jax gives him a small smile. “It was my night to do last-minute checks on the machines, so you guys got really lucky.” He pauses for a moment, eyes lingering on the window just beyond the projectors and watching all the people on the dancefloor. A determined huff of air comes out his nose. “Be quick and don’t get caught. We’re all counting on you.”

“Thank you, Jax,” Julie says, “for risking so much.”

He gives a stern nod in return. “You all are the ones risking everything. I’m just a grunt worker.”

Julie shakes her head at him before waving her hand at the door. “Go. Get your stamp removed and help people get out of here.” He salutes on his way back out and then he’s gone, leaving the two of them to their mischief. “Where do we even start?” Julie asks him.

Reggie has his head turned toward where Jax had been looking, noticing just how many people were in the house tonight. It was up to them so nothing bad happened to these innocent people Caleb so recklessly put in harm’s way. Then he looks to Julie, her face steeled with resolve, but her eyes filled with unspoken fear. He places a hand on her shoulder and squeezes, the tightness in them draining out just a tad. He points to the computer where all the instructions for tonight’s performance lay. “We start where it hurts most.”

~ ~ ~

Luke catches Flynn by the shoulder as she tries to square up with one of the security spirits, turning her around and walking the opposite way. “Our job is to get these people out of here and you’re too recognizable to be picking fights,” he says under his breath. Overhead, he hears an announcement about delaying the start of the show due to technical difficulties and he chuckles. Julie and Reggie must’ve gotten their job underway.

Flynn scoffs at his words, worming her way out of his grip. They make their way to the bar so they can start on their plan. “Please. If anyone recognizes me, it’s because I’m the world’s most useless roadie.”

“Hey,” Luke protests, stopping her momentarily in her tracks. “You’re important to the success of this band and to its members. We wouldn’t be half as far as we are without you.”

Flynn smiles, a little more sheepishly than usual. “You sure know how to make a gal feel special.” Luke chuckles with her. “Now, let’s get Operation GTFO underway.”

She hops up onto a barstool, Luke following suit. At their places appear two glasses of shimmering purple liquid without any having taken their order, likely another bit of ghostly magic put in place by Caleb. Luke and Flynn smile deviously at each other as she passes him a plastic spider she swiped from Carlos’s room, each of them dropping one in their cups. Luke makes a big show about taking a sip from the cup, going as far as to let out a satisfied, “Ah.”

Flynn takes her turn but she screeches, catching the attention of the other patrons sitting there. “A spider!” She puts her drink down, standing and backing away in a hysterical manner.

“There’s one in mine, too!” Luke exclaims following after Flynn, joining her just around the corner. Now, if he knows anything about rich people, he gives them a maximum of ten seconds before they put their drinks down in disgust and head for the door. “Six, seven,” he counts aloud as the group all look at one another with repulsion in their eyes. He gets to a count of nine before they’re standing from the bar, drinks pushed aside, and grumbling about how poor service has become these days while they make their way to the exit. “Yes!” Luke puts his hand out for a low five that Flynn gives happily.

“Let’s keep it up,” she says, moving from her hiding place and picking out her next target. The two of them go at it for the next hour or so, making up ridiculous excuses and coming up with more elaborate hoaxes so that all these people caught in the crossfire will leave. A performer in a long, pale vaudevillian dress passes by them when they’ve got the club just over half empty, pressing a dark, slender finger to her lips and winking as she goes. She’s on her way to the main entrance, probably off to make a phony report so that no more people can get let in. Alex and Willie must have gotten their part of the plan under way and the ghosts were also on the way out.

Things are going smoothly for the most part, the general calmness and efficiency of it all making Luke feel strange. It feels almost like- like, well, someone is _letting_ it happen. He voices as much to Flynn who says, “It doesn’t matter at this point. All we need to worry about is getting these people out of here.” She raises her voice. “Is that a rat?” A whole horde of women rise from their seats, some squealing at the prospect, and delicately tip-toe their way out so as not to step on the imaginary rat.

When the numbers are well and truly depleted, it really makes Luke nervous. “Something should have happened by now,” he asserts, looking around suspiciously.

Flynn nods along, seemingly on his side now. “Yeah, it’s weird.” Alex and Willie choose that moment to pop in, giving her a mini scare. “I’ll never get used to that,” she remarks, clutching her chest.

“What’s going on?” Alex asks. “Everybody getting out?”

From a little ways away, Luke notices Julie running towards them, Reggie not far behind. “We’re here,” she pants, leaning on her knees for support. “What’s happening?”

“We’re getting everyone out. There’s not many people left, but I’m worried this is a trap,” Luke tells them. Flynn explains what they’d been doing, how, certainly, someone in Caleb’s inner circle would have noticed by _now_ that something is off. It’s considerably quieter on the floor, the music still blaring, though. Julie and Reggie must have left that part of the machinery alone.

“This isn’t right,” Willie replies almost angrily, smacking his fist into the palm of his other hand. “Caleb is-”

“What?” a voice calls out from the stage. The group startles to see Nick standing centerstage, a spotlight shining on him. He looks so much paler than he did the other night, his skin glistening with a sheen of sweat. Caleb must really be fighting to stay in control. “Go on, finish that sentence. Caleb is what? Planning something?” His voice is off, a strange, unnatural fusion of Caleb’s deep cadence and Nick’s frightened one, twisting and turning and trying to decide which one to sound like more. Nobody says anything and Luke can feel the tension in the air mounting around them. “You’d be right of course,” Caleb uses Nick’s body to saunter forward, pausing on the steps to appraise them all. “You rotten little children thought you could pull one over on me? Think again.” He snaps and a curtain further upstage falls revealing Nick’s dads and his sister, poor, helpless Becca, tied to one another with strands of purple energy, the three of them gagged. It takes everything in Luke not to rush forward and tackle Caleb to the ground, realizing at the last second that he couldn’t hurt Caleb without hurting Nick and the kid’s been through hell already. It’s now that the remaining patrons make a mass exodus, nearly stampeding towards the door to get away from whatever’s about to happen.

“What do you want?” Julie yells out, borderline hysterical.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Nick gestures widely towards them and Nick’s family. “Nick in exchange for the boys. I’ll even throw in his family as a sign of good faith.”

Nick’s face scrunches up then, the veins in his neck and forehead straining. “Don’t do it,” he grits out, sounding entirely like himself for a moment. “He’s lying!”

Nick’s body convulses, the sigils on his neck standing out. Julie and Flynn are crying out as he crumples to the floor on hands and knees, Caleb springing from his body. “Naughty boy,” he tuts disapprovingly. There’s a faint purple glow between the two of them and Luke figures there’s still a connection between them.

“Let them go,” Willie says defiantly, piercing fury in his eyes. “Take me instead. Don’t you want to know what powers I could have since I’m still living?”

“Willie, no!” Alex protests.

Caleb cackles maniacally, hand coming to his chest. He doesn’t seem phased to find out that Willie knows he’s not dead. “You should listen to your boy, William. Can’t you see you’re of no use to me anymore?” Caleb flicks his hand and sends Willie flying. He hits the wall hard and Reggie has to hold Alex back from chasing after him, since doing so would mean putting himself in Caleb’s path.

Luke knows what comes next. Caleb will wreak havoc on the whole group. He’s so much more in control of his powers than they are, it’s no question as to who would win that fight. And Nick, his family, they would all get caught up in the middle of it. He can’t let that happen, but the beginnings of a plan are formulating at the back of his mind. He steps forward. “Take me.”

Caleb looks to him, interest clear in his eyes, though he’s obviously trying to downplay it. “Oh, yeah? What’s the big idea, huh?”

Luke takes another few cautious steps forward, careful to keep his face neutral. “No ideas. Take me and let everyone else go. I won’t struggle and I won’t fight it. You’ll get me in your band, your show, for the rest of eternity. Just let everyone else leave.”

Caleb seems to be weighing the options in his mind when Julie grabs his wrist. “Don’t Luke! I won’t let you!”

He turns to face her, shaking her hand from his arm. “You can’t stop me.” He sends her a discreet wink, hoping she gets the message that he has this under control. Knowing flickers in her eyes before she schools her face back into the distraught expression that was displayed there before.

Luke continues his journey to the stage, none of his friends stopping him after the private signal he just gave. He passes by Willie on his way, a small groan leaving him and Luke thanks every being out there that he’s okay. He reasons the element of surprise would only help in this case, so when he finally stands before Caleb, he doesn’t take long to jump him, reaching deep, down within himself to find his own phantom powers.

He can practically hear the boys calling him the biggest idiot they know, but Luke just focuses on keeping Caleb on the ground and maintaining his place in separating him from Nick. “You’ve got to fight it!” he grinds out, straining already under the tremendous amount of energy he’s expending fighting Caleb’s magic. “Nick, you have to get rid of the connection!”

He hears the rate of Nick’s breathing increase and sees him begin to stand out of his peripherals. Luke can feel the shock his sudden attack caused dissipating, the pressure around the three of them pushing in on him. Julie steps forward, kept at bay by the quickly mounting bubble of energy radiating from Nick and Caleb’s bond. “Nick, you try harder than anyone, even on the little things. I can tell how much getting that dance right meant to you and I’ll always be grateful for your efforts. You’re so much more than him! _So much_ more!”

“Nick! We love you, honey!” one of his dads shouts. Luke notices the three of them shifting around to move their gags. “We love you so much no matter what!”

Nick groans, standing on his feet now, but still bent over and fighting for control. “I need you, Nicky,” Becca adds, sounding on the verge of tears and Luke redoubles his efforts to keep Caleb down long enough for the connection to be severed. “Who else will have princess dance parties with me?” And suddenly, everyone is shouting encouragements, the words accompanied by the sound of pounding on the energy dome.

Nick stands to full height, chest heaving, and screams, the thing sounding guttural and animalistic. The energy bubble bursts, a shockwave blast of cold air and raw power nearly pushing Luke off the stage. Nick practically collapses but Flynn is unexpectedly there to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. The purple link between him and Caleb is gone and Caleb seems all the more worse for it. Luke scuttles away from Caleb, Alex and Reggie rushing towards him to make sure he’s okay while pulling him off the stage. He’s already exhausted.

“That,” Caleb pants, “was a mistake.” A bolt of purple lightning shoots from his fingertips at the boys. It takes everything in Luke to just roll away in time, but he’s so out of it that he can’t warn Julie. She takes the hit square in the chest, flying backwards through the air and landing with a sickening crunch.

“No!” Luke can hardly cry out.

“Hey!” Reggie catches Caleb’s attention. “Try and get me, you bastard!” When he whirls around to attack Reggie, Flynn lays Nick gently on the ground and crawls towards Julie to take care of her. Before Luke can do much of anything, another bolt is careening towards one of his best friends, but it doesn’t land. Reggie has his eyes scrunched in concentration and the lightning stops mere inches away from him. When he opens his eyes, the lightning evaporates into thin air.

Rapid fire, Caleb shoots another one at Alex and, before he can think about it, Alex is catching it and sending it back towards Caleb. Luke stands and joins in then, all of his concentration on blocking Caleb’s magic from ever leaving his body. Together, the three boys make a hell of a team. They block, evade, and attack, taking turns covering one another when one of them needs a break. Behind him, Luke can hear the girls doing something, but he dares not look for fear of Caleb regaining the upper hand. He’s almost out of juice, they all are, by the time Julie shouts out.

“Hey!” Caleb is drained. Not as drained as the three of them, but still drained nonetheless. Julie’s seated on the ground up against a wall, a sheen of sweat visible on her brow, her left leg bent at a slightly awkward angle. “Does this look familiar?” She leans aside, making completely visible a strange marking in chalk. It gives Luke bad vibes, the thing almost too evil-looking to lay eyes on.

But Caleb seems to recognize it. “No,” he whispers harshly.

“Oh, yes! I think it’s about time you paid your dues to the thing you were enslaving people for!” She slaps her hand to the sigil and shouts out a word Luke doesn’t quite understand. He thinks it might be a name, but his thinking is quickly cut off by a sudden increase in pressure. If he were alive, his ears would have popped. A thick, dark smoke appears, covering the floor and snaking its way to Caleb. The man scurries back, a look of utter terror on his face.

“No! Not yet! Please, not yet!” The smoke catches up to him and a bloodcurdling screech echoes throughout the room, so loud that Luke has to clamp his hands over his ears in an attempt to block it out. And as soon as it came, the smoke clears, taking with it Caleb and all traces of his powers.

The bindings fall from Nick’s family, the blond man running towards his son to check if he’s still breathing. “Chad, call an ambulance!”

Luke joins Flynn at Julie’s side. She’s panting and her eyelids are fluttering, “Hey,” he says, barely able to keep his own eyes open; he’s so _tired_ , but he grabs her hand up in his. “Stay with us.” She grasps his hand weakly but gives it a squeeze before she winces.

“Can you get my dad?” she asks Flynn quietly. “Please?”

Flynn looks reluctant to leave her, concern coming off of her in waves, and Luke does what he can to assuage it: “I’ll stay with her. Promise.” She meets Luke’s eyes, nodding once before heading back to her car.

Luke settles in next to Julie, hand still intertwined with hers. He finds it a little hard to believe it was all over, but looking over to see Nick’s eyes open as he leans against his dad, Willie sitting up with Alex’s help, and Reggie walking towards them to sit on Julie’s other side, he can’t be bothered to care if it’s not the end. Everyone is safe now, and that’s the best he can ask for.

~ ~ ~

Flynn will be lucky if she doesn’t get pulled over as she consistently ignores stop sign after stop sign. All of her thoughts are so centered around getting to the Molinas or hoping that Julie will be alright that she can’t even try to think about traffic laws. When she finally pulls into the driveway, she spots Carlos and Mr. Molina tossing a ball back and forth. She forgets to turn the car off as she nearly falls out and approaches them.

“Hey, Flynn,” Mr. Molina greets, smile slipping off his face when he notices her worry. “What happened? Where’s Julie?”

She can hardly get the words out, but she says, “I can explain on the way, but Julie was hurt. She asked me to come tell you, but the boys are with her.”

“What?” Carlos says at the same time Mr. Molina lets out, “Oh, my god.”

 **“I’ll drive you to the hospital.”** Flynn ushers them both to her car before climbing in again herself, taking off from the driveway at breakneck speed. She pleads with the powers that be that everyone will be okay when they get there.

~ ~ ~

Once Julie’s family had shown up and she had been taken to a room to be treated for her broken leg, rib, and concussion, Alex realizes with a start that Willie’s seal had never been fully removed. The boy in question is nowhere to be found, though he had been with them not too long ago. He figures that Luke and Reggie have this under control and that they would come get him if something went wrong, so he focuses on Willie and pops out of the room.

He’s at a computer at a nurses station, fiddling with it while the nurse has his back turned. For a moment, Alex wonders if Willie is actively trying to commit a felony and then it hits him where they’re at. Willie looks up at him once he steps away from the computer. Silently, he joins Alex and takes his hand. “Are you okay?” Alex asks him.

“My body is here,” Willie says in lieu of an actual response. The implications settle over the both of them.

“Do you want to, um, visit it?” Willie just nods, so Alex lets him lead the way. They walk instead of teleporting because he can tell the skater needs a while to process what’s happening. They don’t speak, but Alex’s grip tightens on his hand when they suddenly stop at the door on the ninth floor landing. Together, they phase through it and Willie takes a moment to read the sign on the wall before leading them down the left hallway.

It strikes Alex, hard and fast, what’s about to happen. It hurts him in ways he didn’t know was possible, but he’s not going to stop this wonderful, amazing person from living life to the fullest just because he-

His thoughts are cut off abruptly when they reach room 917. The door is propped open and the faint beeping of a heart monitor comes from inside. Alex can’t see anything, but Willie’s eyes are glued to whatever is in there, so he figures it’s his turn to lead. He gently pulls Willie along behind his as they enter the room.

He can’t even imagine how Willie is feeling, but seeing the boy’s body is something Alex wasn’t as prepared for as he thought. He looks the same, though his face is gaunt and his hair piled on his head in a messy topknot. He looks so… small with all the machines and wires and tubes surrounding him. Willie turns to face him, then, throwing his arms around Alex. “Hey, it’s okay.” He feels the boy let out a shuddering breath against the side of his neck.

“I don’t know what comes next,” Willie confesses. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Alex whispers into his hair, echoing his words back at him from a few days ago. “You should get back to your life.”

Willie pulls back to an arm’s length and studies his face. “I don’t want to do this without you.”

Alex pastes a melancholy smile on his face. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” Willie draws him back in and they stand there wordlessly for another few moments, their holds on one another contradictory to their words. “Ready?” Alex asks eventually.

“As I’ll ever be,” Willie responds.

He doesn’t know what else to do to help get rid of the stamp, so Alex does the first thing that comes to mind: he turns his head and places a delicate, lasting kiss on Willie’s cheek. They separate as the sigil raises from his arm and disappears and between one blink of an eye and the next, so does Willie. In the bed, his eyes snap open looking directly at him.

“Alex?” Willie’s voice is strained with disuse, but Alex doesn’t even register it because- can Willie see him? Did his time as a ghost make him able to see them? Alex moves to the side of his bed and his heart shatters when Willie’s eyes don’t track him. He can’t bear to answer him, not trusting his voice to not waver, so he concentrates on placing his hand on his cheek, right over where he’d kissed him. Willie moves his head towards the touch and he looks as though he’s about to say something, but a doctor enters the room and steals his attention.

Alex takes the distraction as his getaway. He heads for the door, but not before looking back at the boy he loves, watching the doctor ask him questions as a vacant sadness fills his eyes. Tears he had been holding back start to spill over when he decidedly can’t take it anymore and he poofs back to Julie’s room. She’s asleep when he gets there and the boys are slumped on one another against a wall, so he allows himself a moment to cry in peace. At least everyone is safe even if Alex can’t bring himself to be as happy about it as he should be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me if this is too much. I really just kinda went for it. I mean, they're essentially living in a Disney-physics world, so I'm not really looking for accuracy. Writing the sentence "Chad, call an ambulance!" went against everything in me due to the connotations of the name Chad. I hated reading it every time I edited it but such is life. Also, there's some French in here that I totally used the internet and not a person to write, so if it's incorrect, please let me know and I'll fix it. Finals week is next week for me so I've been kind of out of it for the last few days. Don't worry; posting should continue as usual. Your sweet comments have given me life these past few weeks, so if you could send a few more my way for support, I would literally be indebted to you forever. As usual, requests are open from [this list](https://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you) except for 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 26, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 48, 49, 50, 53, 57, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 82, 83, 86, 91, 98, and 99. Thanks for everything, sweet things. I love you!
> 
> main: [hi-hello-hey-there](https://hi-hello-hey-there.tumblr.com/)  
> side: [toziers-token](https://toziers-token.tumblr.com/)
> 
> love, blue


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